1. Related Application
This application is related by subject matter to application Ser. No. 08/229,805, entitled "Subscription Television System and Terminal for Enabling Simultaneous Display of Multiple Services" and application Ser. No. 08/229,717, entitled "System and Method for Providing Subscriber-Interactivity in a Television System, both filed Apr. 19, 1994.
2. Technical Field
This application relates to the field of subscription television systems, and more particularly, to providing an electronic program schedule to a user of a subscription television system, and allowing the user to select programs, including pay-per-view or video-on-demand programs, directly from the electronic program schedule.
3. Description of the Relevant Art
Cable, satellite, and over-the-air subscription television systems, generally referred to herein as subscription television systems, are known. Relatively recently, pay-per-view events were added as available choices on many subscription television systems. These events are available for purchase individually for a fee. The user selects the event, and there is a charge assessed against his account. The subscriber's equipment (normally referred to as a subscriber terminal or set top terminal) then tunes the event and performs any necessary descrambling. The user is then able to view the event.
In order to view a program, the subscriber must inform his service provider that he wishes to view the program. In many prior art systems, this has been complicated and inconvenient for the subscriber. In early systems, it was necessary for the subscriber to either mail a card or telephone the provider well in advance of the event and request that his terminal be authorized to view the event. This required significant preparation on the part of the subscriber. Unless the event was of very special interest to the subscriber, he was unlikely to engage in such preparation. Further, such systems did not provide for persons who, for example, found themselves unexpectedly home on a given night, and wanted to watch a pay-per-view movie. Responding to dissatisfaction over such systems, providers have more recently offered more sophisticated telephone authorization services, requiring a minimum of preparation time and/or cable return authorization services. Also, so-called impulse-pay-per-view systems have been introduced that allow a subscriber to choose an event directly from his subscriber terminal for immediate viewing.
However, even with the sophisticated phone authorization systems or impulse-pay-per-view systems, choosing a pay-per-view event has not proved to be a simple matter. With the phone authorization systems, the user must know a telephone number to call. He must then enter a series of seemingly meaningless numbers indicating the program choice, a customer identification number, and typically, a security number of some sort. With impulse-pay-per-view systems, the user must frequently work his way through long menus and also enter event codes and security numbers. The problem with such systems is that users are often intimidated by them. Many of the subscribers are unsophisticated and find it difficult to remember the steps necessary to purchase the events. Other subscribers are recalcitrant and unwilling to learn the complex steps required for pay-per-view operations. Such users do not purchase pay-per-view events, and accordingly, reduce the revenue the service provider would otherwise obtain. Moreover, these complicated systems have a degenerative effect because the subscribers become frustrated with their systems and in the future are unwilling to try new services offered by the cable company, dismissing them as too complex. As with all services provided on a fee basis, there is a drive in the industry to make purchase of pay-per-view events as easy as possible.
Recently, some companies have begun offering electronic television schedules for purchase by subscription television providers, who, in turn, provide the schedules to their customers. The schedules contain a listing of television programs by time and channel, and are typically displayed as a grid on the television screen. Such a system is shown in PCT Publication No. WO 92/04801, applied for by Insight Telecast, Inc. (hereinafter "the Insight system"). That publication describes a display system for maneuvering a cursor through a television schedule. The system also describes that a subscriber can choose a program for recording by moving a cursor to the selected program; the system will automatically program the customer's video cassette recorder. The Insight system provides week-long television schedule information. That information is downloaded into a subscriber terminal for use by the subscriber. Accordingly, the subscriber terminal must have significant memory. Further, most users of the guide are not seeking information one week in advance of the broadcast. The significant memory expense imposed by the Insight system is frequently not justified by the extra performance allowed by the one-week display.
Also recently, so-called near-video-on-demand services have been introduced. These services provide a simulation of the videotape rental experience. One such system is described in Walter, U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,353. Walker describes in column 4, lines 18-27 that a converter may be enabled to descramble two channels carrying the same program at staggered intervals. This allows returning to the same portion of the video after a pause equal to the staggered time interval. The Walker patent gives as an example a subscriber ordering a program that begins at 8:00 p.m. The converter unscrambles the 8:00 showing as well as the 8:15 showing so that the viewer may return to the same point in the program after a fifteen minute break. However, if the near-video-on-demand feature is to effectively compete with video rental stores, it must have additional features such as multiple pause features, rewind features and fast-forward features. In addition, the subscriber should find such a service to be user-friendly and easy to use.